Noah might be a surprising character to consider in getting ready for Christmas. But a little hint, here… To Christians, every hero in what we call the Old Testament points to God intersecting human history by means of the ‘Messiah’, ‘the Christ’. Put that way, even Jews see all such heroes pointing to the one great hero to come. Others do a better job at pointing out these nuances.
What I will leave in this meditation on Advent are the implications for those who consider protecting human life to be itself a heroic undertaking today. When God makes peace with Noah in a covenant, he doesn’t stop at setting the rainbow in the sky. Genesis chapter 9 lays out two simple ideas for Noah and those after him. First, Noah was told we are to be fruitful and fill the earth with the goodness of human life. And secondly, because we are made in the image of God, we are not to return to the taking of innocent life that plagued the culture destroyed in the flood.
As we get ready for a baby to come into the world in Bethlehem, we must remember that whether it was Noah’s time, or Jesus time (think King Herod who wanted to kill this baby) or our time, new life must be protected and offered a culture for that protection and nurture. Christmas takes us to that culture, a culture of life.